I was about to go into my box at the Lyceum Theatre last night when I received a text that there was a pro-independence demo on at Holyrood. So I abandoned my hosts (I did not feel quite as bad about this as I had stood for pre-theatre supper), fled the theatre and positively jogged down to parliament. I passed most of the demonstrators leaving on their way home, saltires draped over shoulders and Guido masks on top of heads. But there were still a few hundred there when I arrived, listening to unpractised speakers telling their very real stories: the independence cause continues to be a genuinely popular movement. One young demonstrator told me how proud they had been as they marched down the Royal Mile, with pedestrians homeward bound after a day’s work spontaneously stepping off the pavement to join the march, and the bars emptying. I then watched the fireworks bursting over Edinburgh.
I said a while back that if we won independence, I would move back to Scotland. Well, independence is now so inevitable I am indeed moving back, and have been flat-hunting. This is now an Edinburgh blog, and I hope from this weekend will have its Edinburgh home.
Lewes has been much in the news lately. Yesterday they were going to burn an effigy of Alex Salmond, and then didn’t. It is a conundrum why a town which genuinely retains the most radical popular political traditions in England, also is the most fervent place of practice of the reactionary art of catholic effigy burning. They vary this now by burning protestants, too. Cameron and Clegg have been done. I think my fellow Scottish Nationalists who got very upset about the potential Salmond burning were perhaps overreacting. The mistake of the members of the Lewes Waterloo Society was to fail to realise that Salmond is not merely another self-serving member of the political class; the selection was not based on race.
The tradition of burning Guy Fawkes reflects the undeniable fact that there used to be a genuine popular enthusiasm for parliament, which was seen as a bastion against Papal despotism, even long before the large majority of the population had a vote. Nowadays Parliament has become a very different kind of symbol. It symbolises an highly oppressive, authoritarian, narrow political class which shamelessly makes money at our expense, while furthering the interests of vast corporations which enforce the low wage economy and astonishing, ever growing, wealth gap.
The natural instincts of most people today lie with the man who tried to blow up parliament.
It is truly remarkable that, while the BBC and rest of the mainstream media gave hour by hour coverage of the democracy movement protests in Hong Kong, there was virtually no coverage of the violent and brutal treatment, over days, of the Occupy Democracy protest in Parliament Square in London. Nor any mention that there was far less democracy in Hong Kong under British rule than Chinese.
In Lewes, I once spoke to a flourishing political society which claims a direct descent from one founded by Thomas Paine himself- a vivid reminder to us in Scotland that there is a native radical tradition in Southern England, deep underground and waiting to be rediscovered. Lewes also has as its MP Norman Baker, one of the most decent men in politics, who recently resigned as a junior minister over the government’s entirely illogical “war on drugs” – illogical not least because of the drug habits of so many MPs. My current host, Hugh Kerr, when an MEP once made a speech in the European Parliament where he pointed out that many members were voting against drug liberalisation with whom he had personally participated in drug taking. An example of the excessive honesty that led to Hugh being forced out of the Labour Party.
Norman Baker was the subject of many vicious pieces in the mainstream media following his resignation. The crime of daring to think outside the box on drugs, and even worse crime of disagreeing with right wing nutjob and media darling Theresa May, meant that Baker had to be thoroughly monstored. But the most disgraceful and cowardly of all these attacks came from the Guardian of state stooge Alan Rusbridger. This is simply an appalling piece of journalism.
I have met Norman Baker a couple of times, and had a very entertaining conversation with him about Murder in Samarkand on Lewes railway station. The subject of UFO’s never came up. Indeed, if you google “Norman Baker, UFO” you get hundreds of media stories, all of them put out following Baker’s resignation and very evidently put about by Theresa May, for whom the Guardian is but a sounding board. In fact Norman Baker did once suggest in parliament that UFO cases deserved proper official investigation, which seems a perfectly rational view – and as the British government has, over decades, amassed thousands of files on UFO sightings, a view clearly widely held.
Baker’s other great sin is to believe David Kelly was murdered. Well, I think it is very probable indeed that David Kelly was murdered, and so, I suspect, do a very large percentage of the population. If the establishment is truly so confident that David Kelly was not murdered, it is remarkable that they refuse to have an inquest and allow a jury to decide the question in the normal way.
Norman Baker’s true crime was not to be a fully paid up member of the political class. He had never been a special adviser or political assistant. he had some hinterland, other interests, and did not confine his thinking within the tiny sphere of neo-con orthodoxy beyond which the corporate media will declare you a nutter. Politicians must all look the same, and Theresa May and Nigel Farage are now the only acceptable templates.
Sorry, I accidentally deleted this sentence from the above post. Please use it to help answer the question:
The Libdems have voted against an affordable housing bill they helped to create
Fred , Accusing the SNP,it’s members and the people on this blog that want Independence of being Nazi’s and earlier SNP members of having colluded with Nazi Germany is not just criticism.
You back nothing up with fact or links to fact.
You insulted me when you called me racist.Look it up yourself.
You’re a nasty piece of work.You bad mouth constantly Scotland, its people and their politicians.You just look at the candidates and choose which you think is the best one to votefor? So you pick a party that swings left and right and flips all over the place.Like I said it suits you Fred.Schizof****nphrenic!
I’ve met many English people that have moved to Scotland and none of them dislike it.In fact as soon as they integrate they begin to see the country and its problems through local eyes and look for the solutions which the Scottish Govt are trying to provide.Employment in the Highlands and Islands.Keeping the young in the sparsley populated parts.
But you !!! You offer no solutions, no hope, no answers, just nasty insulting invective.
Go home Fred.
“But you !!! You offer no solutions, no hope, no answers, just nasty insulting invective.
Go home Fred.”
Fuck off and die retard cunt.
You ignored my earlier question Fred, but maybe you will answer this simple one.
Why did you decide to make your home in Scotland?
“So, who has done more for those those in need of affordable housing – the LibDems or the SNP?”
When you said you didn’t know the answer to my question I accepted it.
Why can’t you accept me giving the same reply to your question?
There are many things which would have to be taken into consideration.
http://news.stv.tv/politics/249355-msps-reject-national-bedroom-tax-no-evictions-policy-petition/
“Why did you decide to make your home in Scotland?”
None of your business.
Do the Cons think we are stupid?
Osborne says UK’s £1.7bn bill to EU will be ‘halved’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29956289
Smoothface initially stamped his foot and said he would never cough up.
Now Gideon pretends that he has had the sum halved when in reality the second payment falls due next year.
Pathetic.
Cheers Fred.
An Early Day Motion “PROPOSAL FOR UK POLICY ON DRONE USE” has been tabled.
http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2014-15/487
DonnyDarkSide
“We seem to be in some sort of agreement about the preacher and his preaching”
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Yes, since we seem to agree that his preaching is genocidal in intent and demonstrates that Arab (Muslim) preachers can teach the Israeli rebbes a thing or two when it comes to hate speech and intolerance.
I hope I’ve understood your position accurately?
Fred: “When you said you didn’t know the answer to my question I accepted it.
Why can’t you accept me giving the same reply to your question?”
You asked me to account for the motives of politicians – how could I, but I did my best.
I asked you to judge the actions of politicians – something you’re not usually shy about, but you refused.
I have to go out (partying, yeah!) now so before I do, I’ll do my best to account for your motives in not answering my very simple question.
You used affordable housing as an example of why your MP is worth voting for. Plainly, unarguably, the SNP has been far more effective on that issue than the LibDems. You knew that if you answered my question honestly, I would say “Then you should vote SNP,” and you would have no logical reply to that, so you chose to evade the question.
I’ll be back to check your response on Sunday. May I suggest: “You’re absolutely right, Node, from now on I’ll vote SNP.”
Mary
You’ve just referred to the £1,7 billion.
What is your position on the UK’s membership of the European Union? Should the UK stay in?
Feel free to give background and context to your answer by referring to what you thought about entry in 1973 and whether you voted to stay in in the 1975 referendum.
“I have to go out (partying, yeah!)”
You make the most of it while you can. Those MSPs in the Central Belt where they have no shortage of public transport don’t much want the rest of us enjoying ourselves.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-29905827
Austerity in Brussels leads to 100.000 protest riot, with some wielding swords, against the police.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2824057/Brussels-burns-100-000-protesters-clash-police-march-against-EU-austerity-measures.html
By pushing for Israel to “reduce military incursions,” Blair’s team appears to be implying that Israel has a legitimate right to undertake military activities on Palestinian land.
http://stopwar.org.uk/news/how-peace-envoy-tony-blair-enables-israeli-raids-in-illegally-occupied-west-bank
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An interesting look at Tony Blair’s roll as “Peace Envoy” in the Middle East.
Britain’s intelligence services have been given controversial instructions to spy on confidential communications between lawyers and clients, it has been revealed.
Top secret documents suggest MI5, MI6 and GCHQ may have illegally intercepted telephone calls and emails in sensitive security cases – even though lawyer-client relationships are protected by strict rules.
The guidelines – branded by MP David Davis as a ‘national scandal’ – sparked fury because these communications are generally covered by ‘legal professional privilege’ to protect privacy and the right to a free trial.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2824660/Fury-UK-spies-given-orders-snoop-lawyers-clients-branded-national-scandal.html
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The establishment are at it again, it seems they want to know everything about everyone, all the time.
Habbasqueezy: No you haven’t.
1. Your words
“Exactly. And he’s preaching in the here and now.
This Muslim hate preacher is as bad as the Israeli rebbes people on here quote from time to time. ” which I feel we are in agreement about.
2. I’d love you to at least attempt to answer the question Habbavoid. Do you believe that its lunacy to treat anything from 2 or 3000 years ago as if it had any significance today?
Go on, give it a shot !! 3rd time lucky clever cloggs.Go for it.. TGIF and all that.
The Daily Mail, procrastinating, about how wonderful the ceramic poppies at the Tower of London are, whilst railing bitterly at the Guy Fawkes protesters, who took to the streets outside Westminster.
The establishments dogs barks, when it sees something it doesn’t like.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/columnists/article-2824520/While-millions-pay-silent-tribute-Tower-London-anarchists-bring-chaos-Westminster-proof-live-two-Britains-writes-RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN.html
Blackshirts can’t be right Fred.
http://www.theholocaustexplained.org/ks3/the-nazi-rise-to-power/how-did-nazis-gain-power/the-role-of-the-sa/#.VF0RuGc2OV0
You will find term is Brownshirts for the Nazi.
Mussolini ,he had blackshirts but they were not that bad.
DonnyDarkSide
” I’d love you to at least attempt to answer the question Habbavoid. Do you believe that its lunacy to treat anything from 2 or 3000 years ago as if it had any significance today?
Go on, give it a shot !!”
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Why should I, Donny? It’s a trick question.
No, what’s far more important is to be aware that there are numbers of Muslim Arab hate preachers out there who, if not calling for the extermination of all Jews, at least are calling for the eradication of the State of Israel and the Jews there.
I think I’ll repost that quotation from the Kuwaiti hate preacher every time someone on here comes out with an extremist quote from one of the Israeli rebbes.
BTW, there are echoes – well, more than echoes – of that in the Hamas Charter. A document with which I suppose you’re very familiar. 🙂
Kurtan
“Blackshirts can’t be right Fred.”
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Does Sir Oswald Moseley ring a bell, Kurtan?
I imagine that since Fred is writing about the UK he chooses to use a UK reference.
Habby your back already. we really missed you.
How was trollcon 2014? any new tricks?
RoS
“The Daily Mail, procrastinating, about how wonderful the ceramic poppies at the Tower of London are, whilst railing bitterly at the Guy Fawkes protesters,…”
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“Procrastinating”, RoS ??
Mr Dickens, who died in 1995, said he gave details of Establishment paedophiles – known as ‘Dickens dossier’ – to then Home Secretary Leon Brittan in 1983.
A source told BBC2’s Newsnight: ‘They have looked inside and behind every single cupboard in the department, and they have been round them twice, and they have not been able to find any of them.
Former home secretary Lord Brittan has flatly denied failing to deal with a dossier provided by Mr Dickens in 1983 properly, while a review carried out by a HMRC official last year found no evidence that relevant material was not passed to other authorities.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2824947/Missing-Home-Office-dossier-1980s-child-sex-abuse-inquiry.html
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It would appear the Dickens Dossier, is more difficult to find than the Holy Grail. Why don’t they just look in Andrew Parker’s desk drawer, I’m sure it will be sitting there.
Habby – Almost forgot – did you manage to pull a train with ResDis and kempe ok? Will they be back or are they too tired? Cheers!
RoS
“The Daily Mail, procrastinating, about how wonderful the ceramic poppies at the Tower of London are, whilst railing bitterly at the Guy Fawkes protesters,…”
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“Procrastinating”, RoS ??
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Habb
I do apologise old boy, I mean’t gasconading, procrastinating was mean’t for another blog, silly me.
it is very probable indeed that David Kelly was murdered Bravo! Craig
Brock was good on air scent, trained to ‘go find’ and ‘show me’ he found David Kelly, barked and remained with handler Louise Holmes, he would not retrace for some reason. Usually this happens if a human is already on scene. Brock was retracing having already past the east side entry into the woods on the way down to the river on the main track; the wind was blowing south to north.
At 2.50am on July 18, 2003, a helicopter flew over the exact spot where Dr Kelly’s body was found Brock than six hours later, at 8.30am. At that time I believe David was on a boat at the Thames dog-leg North of Harrowdown Hill.
Oxfordshire Coroner Nicholas Gardiner opened an inquest on July 21. But on August 13 the then Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer, Tony Blair’s former flatmate, ordered it to be adjourned indefinitely.
Falconer used an obscure law(Section 17a of the Coroner’s Act) to suspend proceedings, and for the first time in English legal history he replaced an inquest with a non-statutory public inquiry to examine a single death, seemingly without any public explanation.
On August 18, less than three weeks into the Hutton Inquiry, which opened on August 1, Dr Kelly’s death certificate was mysteriously completed and the cause of his death officially registered as haemorrhage.
Place of death, a small box at the top of the certificate, stated found at Harrowgate Hill.
David Kelly was arguably the world’s pre-eminent expert on biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction and had access to the highest levels of the security services and was cleared to see the most highly classified intelligence.
Dr. David Christopher Kelly DSc DPhil CMG – PBUH – LOVED AND NEVER FORGOTTEN
Off topic. Thanks everyone for asking about my absence. Anyway yesterday I had to agree that my peculiar prose-style is no match for the masterful, King of Welsh Noir, but I did promise to try and improve on it. One way I thought of doing this was to include photos and lashings of sex or sexual innuendo. So I did a photo-shoot with a naked chick this morning. It was cold and wet and we did the whole of the session outdoors. My hands were numb but I got some great shots.
http://johngossip.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/her-first-naked-outdoor-photo-shoot-and.html
It went rather well I thought. Thanks for your attention.
Nope, haven’t read their charter Habbacantanswer ?I would imagine it is in Arabic. Not one of my languages.
“FIGhTnIgHt
7 Nov, 2014 – 7:15 pm ”
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Changed your moniker yet again, have you?
English Knight, Porkfright…….